NEW YORK, Sept. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics to treat chronic liver diseases, announced today that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to a proposed initial public offering of shares of its common stock. All shares of the common stock to be sold in the offering will be offered by Intercept. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined.

BofA Merrill Lynch is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering. BMO Capital Markets is acting as lead manager and Needham & Company, LLC, Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences and ThinkEquity LLC are acting as co-managers.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold and offers to buy may not be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, and there shall not be any sale of these securities in any state in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to and describing the terms of the offering may be obtained from BofA Merrill Lynch, 222 Broadway, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10038, Attn: Prospectus Department, or via email, at dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com, or BMO Capital Markets, Attention: Equity Syndicate Department, 3 Times Square New York, NY 10036, Telephone: (800) 414-3627 E-mail: bmoprospectus@bmo.com.

About InterceptIntercept is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics to treat orphan and more prevalent liver diseases utilizing its expertise in bile acid chemistry. The company's lead product candidate, obeticholic acid, or OCA, is a bile acid analog and first-in-class agonist of the farnesoid X receptor (FXR). OCA is initially being developed for the second line treatment of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) in patients with an inadequate response to, or who are unable to tolerate, ursodiol, the only approved therapy for this indication. PBC is a chronic autoimmune liver disease that may progress to cirrhosis and liver failure, and it is currently the fifth leading indication for liver transplant in the United States. OCA has orphan drug designation in both the United States and Europe for the treatment of PBC. Intercept owns worldwide rights to OCA outside of Japan and China, where it has outlicensed the product candidate to Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma (DSP).